The Tanglefoot Picnic Ground is an iconic area in the heart of the Toolangi Forest to the east of Melbourne – complete with beautiful surrounds, an information stand, picnic tables and a toilet. It is also the gateway to the amazing Kalatha Giant which is 300- 400 years old, and the start of the wonderful and popular Myrtle Gully Walking Track . Its accessibility and rich ecology has led to it being visited  by many thousands of tourists each year.

But the area behind the picnic ground is now being being logged! Eventually the coupe will cover 51 hectares. This will greatly impact on the general beauty of the area and make it far less attractive to visitors. It will see the needless further destruction of precious native forest.

Volunteer surveyors from Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH) have recorded a critically-endangered Leadbeater’s Possum next to the logging coupe, just 500 metres SE of the Tanglefoot picnic ground in the Toolangi State Forest.

Don’t let this happen

Logging has only just started, so we can still stop this.

Please call the office of the Minister for the Environment, Lily D’Ambrosio and leave a message with the person who answers the phone. Just say you’re ringing with a message for the minister, that you’re concerned that the area behind the iconic Tanglefoot picnic ground near Toolangi is now being prepared to be clearfelled, and request her to intervene urgently to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Minister D’Ambrosio’s office: (03) 9637 9504

They will probably ask you to follow up with a quick email:  lily.d’ambrosio@parliament.vic.gov.au

The image at the top of the page shows community members meeting at Tanglefoot Picnic Ground:  Newlands Friends of the Forest Group from Melbourne’s inner north meeting and hearing stories of local Knitting Nannas of Toolangi – highlighting the importance of the area to them .  This was part of a journey called ‘Tall Trees to Our Taps.’

Image: The base of the Kalatha Giant – a signposted board walk funded by the bushfire recovery fund – was put in place by survivors of the black Saturday 2009 fires to highlight the importance of the remaining mixed growth forest.

The map above is the DWELP Toolangi Forest Tourist Map – Showing the central Tanglefoot Picnic Area.

Prepared by Cath Rouse.

Below: work starts on the coupe (Image: WOTCH).

Floater coupe